Seventy-one men completed a battery of cognitive tests which were designed to reflect verbal analytic and non-verbal holistic functioning. Interest centred around pattern of response. Thirty men were suffering from an affective disorder and forty-one were well. All the men were in prison, the majority awaiting trial. The affective disorder group was subdivided into three categories: men who had a history of manic-depressive illness; a group of unipolar, psychotically depressed men; and men who were regarded as being depressed in reaction to circumstances. All three groups showed specific difficulty in dealing with spatial/holistic tasks, other factors being held constant. They were also found to differ in a number of other respects. The possible significance of these differences is discussed.